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Technology companies and child safety agencies will receive permission to evaluate whether artificial intelligence tools can produce child exploitation material under recently introduced UK legislation.

Significant Rise in AI-Generated Harmful Material

The declaration came as revelations from a safety watchdog showing that reports of AI-generated CSAM have increased dramatically in the last twelve months, growing from 199 in 2024 to 426 in 2025.

New Legal Framework

Under the amendments, the government will permit designated AI developers and child safety organizations to inspect AI systems – the foundational systems for conversational AI and image generators – and verify they have adequate safeguards to prevent them from creating images of child sexual abuse.

"Ultimately about stopping abuse before it happens," stated Kanishka Narayan, adding: "Specialists, under rigorous protocols, can now identify the risk in AI models promptly."

Tackling Legal Challenges

The amendments have been introduced because it is illegal to create and possess CSAM, meaning that AI developers and others cannot create such content as part of a testing process. Until now, officials had to wait until AI-generated CSAM was uploaded online before addressing it.

This legislation is designed to preventing that problem by helping to stop the creation of those materials at their origin.

Legislative Framework

The amendments are being added by the government as revisions to the criminal justice legislation, which is also implementing a prohibition on owning, producing or sharing AI models developed to generate child sexual abuse material.

Practical Consequences

This recently, the minister visited the London base of a children's helpline and listened to a mock-up conversation to counsellors featuring a account of AI-based exploitation. The call portrayed a teenager requesting help after facing extortion using a sexualised deepfake of himself, constructed using AI.

"When I hear about young people experiencing blackmail online, it is a source of intense frustration in me and justified anger amongst families," he said.

Alarming Data

A prominent internet monitoring organization stated that instances of AI-generated abuse material – such as online pages that may contain multiple images – had more than doubled so far this year.

Instances of category A material – the gravest form of exploitation – rose from 2,621 visual files to 3,086.

• Female children were overwhelmingly victimized, accounting for 94% of prohibited AI depictions in 2025
• Depictions of infants to toddlers increased from five in 2024 to 92 in 2025

Sector Reaction

The law change could "constitute a vital step to guarantee AI products are safe before they are launched," stated the head of the online safety foundation.

"Artificial intelligence systems have enabled so victims can be targeted repeatedly with just a few clicks, providing offenders the ability to create potentially limitless quantities of sophisticated, lifelike exploitative content," she added. "Material which further commodifies survivors' trauma, and renders young people, particularly girls, more vulnerable on and off line."

Support Interaction Information

The children's helpline also released details of support sessions where AI has been referenced. AI-related harms discussed in the sessions comprise:

• Employing AI to rate body size, body and looks
• Chatbots discouraging young people from talking to safe adults about harm
• Facing harassment online with AI-generated content
• Digital blackmail using AI-manipulated images

During April and September this year, the helpline conducted 367 support sessions where AI, chatbots and associated terms were discussed, four times as many as in the equivalent timeframe last year.

Half of the references of AI in the 2025 sessions were related to mental health and wellness, encompassing utilizing AI assistants for support and AI therapeutic apps.